From 1972 to 1991, Eleanor Antin (born 1935) created multiple personae of different genders, races, professions, historical contexts and geographic locations. The artist called this motley group--which includes a deposed king, an exiled film director, ambitious ballerinas and hard-working nurses--her "selves." The selves’ manifestations were as diverse as their stories: some were embodied by Antin and captured in photographs and on video; others had paper doll surrogates; at times their existence was known only through the drawings, texts and films they had ostensibly left behind. As she explored the fleeting nature of the self, Antin used fiction, fantasy and theatricality to examine the ways that history takes shape, scrutinizing the role that visual representation plays in that process. Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin’s "Selves" is the first project to focus exclusively on this critical body of work.

Published by Los Angeles County Museum of Art.Artwork by Eleanor Antin. Contributions by Lisa Bloom. Text by Graham Beal, Howard Fox.

For more than three decades Southern California artist Eleanor Antin has been an acclaimed figure on the American art scene. During that time she has created a body of work that is remarkable for its inventiveness, its wit and its poignancy. This is the first comprehensive survey of this pioneer in the development of video, performance, conceptual and installation art.